FOR all those taxpayers in Macclesfield and Wilmslow incensed at Cheshire East’s delay in ‘harmonising’ parking charges across (half) the county, allow me to explain.

Councils rule by the Law of Least Resistance, for example Tesco take the gold, small shopkeepers get the shaft – that’s the way it works. It’s not official policy, but that’s the way things generally work out. Big boys scare them, little boys don’t.

Pity the traders in Congleton who will see charges introduced in their previously free car parks, while retailers in Sandbach, Alsager and Holmes Chapel will not. As my American friends say: "Go figure".

The views on this page are vic Barlow's and not necessarily those of the Express